UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones isn’t the first fighter to be the subject of a petition.
The GOAT contender is currently coming under fire for avoiding a unification fight against Tom Aspinall. Amid growing fury, some fans have taken matters into their own hands with a petition calling for the UFC to strip Jones.
In two weeks, over 150,000 have signed after it went viral. But it’s not the first petition about a UFC fighter to gain mainstream attention.
Megastar Conor McGregor was also the subject of a petition weeks on from the history-making knockout against Jose Aldo that saw him become the UFC featherweight champion.
Let’s just say that petition was considerably different…
- READ MORE: ‘Told you…’ Tom Aspinall sends Jon Jones a hilarious reminder in response to his latest mocking
Petition to put Conor McGregor’s face on Ireland’s one euro coins was rejected
McGregor was not the subject of a petition regarding his fighting career. Rather, the UFC star’s face was proposed as the new design for one euro coins in his native Ireland.
A petition calling for McGregor to be put on the coins was submitted to the Oireachtas (the parliament of Ireland) in January 2016 by a man named Patrick O’Leary.
The move wasn’t out of support and admiration for McGregor’s recent UFC accomplishment, though.
“For a country with such a rich cultural heritage in music, poetry and art we have been very bad at designing coins (a harp? Really guys? That’s original),” the petition text reads.
“As evident from various pictures floating around Instagram and Facebook, Irish UFC champion Conor McGregor has a lot of money. However he is clearly too embarrassed by his [country’s] coin to keep it here and pay tax on it.
“The best incentive to get McGregor to start using the euro is to put his face on the coin. This will also encourage foreign billionaires who are fans of fighting, such as Smaug the dragon, to convert their vast empires to €1 euro coins.”
After the petition’s submission to the Irish parliament, it was discussed at a committee meeting. The petition was ruled inadmissible after the individual responsible for submitting it could not be contacted.
Conor McGregor reacted positively to the surprise petition
The committee’s rejection of the petition might have come as a disappointment for McGregor, who had actually reacted to it and called on fan support.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), McGregor thanked his “fans” for the petition, perhaps having not read the petition text.
“It would be a true honour for me to be immortalised on the €1 coin! Thank you to my fans for the petition! Let’s go Oireachtas! Vote YES,” McGregor wrote.
These days, McGregor is an increasingly polarizing figure in his home country. After a number of legal controversies, the Dubliner has faced plenty of backlash from some of his compatriots.
But that hasn’t stopped the UFC star from announcing an audacious plan to reach the Irish presidency.
If McGregor were to reach a political office, perhaps fans could expect ‘The Notorious’ to start appearing on coins, given his past enthusiasm over the possibility.